Major Activities Of SCAEF in 2006

1. Construction Industry Development Act
The existing Construction Business Act, 2055 (1999) has made the provisions on the operation of construction business by including mainly provisions relating to license, classification and obligation of construction entrepreneurs and few other miscellaneous provisions. The Act is silent on the various provisions for the institutional development of construction business and also for the overall development of the construction industry as a whole, which without including the interest of consulting business remains incomplete. SCAEF has been seriously working since many years for brining the appropriate policy, act and regulation for the institutional development of consulting industry in Nepal and had submitted proposal to the Line Ministry, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW). In this context and on the request of SCAEF, the meeting of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) chaired by the Minister of Physical Planning and Works has decided to ammend the Construction Business Act, 2055 as “Construction Industry Development Act” with the inclusion of provisions for the overall development of construction Industry i.e. both the construction entrepreneurs and consulting sectors. A committee with Legal Officer of MPPW as Convenor and other members from Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal (FCAN) and Society of Consulting Architectural and Engineering Firms (SCAEF) was constituted. The Draft of Construction Industry Development Act was prepared. The Draft of proposed Act was included in the annual report presented during the 16th General Body Meeting of SCAEF held in Shankar Hotel on 18th January, 2006.
Another draft was prepared separately by MPPW and both the draft acts were discussed in Half Yearly General Body Meeting (Special General Body Meeting) held on 13th August, 2006 in Hotel Shanker. EC was given the mandate to prepare single draft Act merging the relevant features of two draft Acts. A Committee was formed to merge and prepare the Act as discussed. A Legal Officer was nominated for the finalization of draft. The committee prepared the final draft and presented in the EC. An in-depth discussion was made and the Legal Officer was requested to finalize the Act on behalf of SCAEF for further discussion in the meeting of the main Committee and with other stakeholders. The Draft Act has been distributed to all the concerned and will be finalised in near future.

2. Establishment of Consultancy Development Center
Nepal from April 23, 2004 has entered formally in World Trade Organization. There has been a lot of issues, which if not timely addressed, will surely make adverse impact on the commercial, trade or service sector of the country. Thus, to protect the national property developed with lots of effort and resources, the Government must take bold, responsible and far-sighted decisions. In consulting service sector, the Government must formulate a clear - cut supportive policy to protect national interest, promote national firms and develop their competency through preferential provisions made towards them. Without such support from the government, the national consulting sector will be overthrown by flood of expatriate firms with manifold resources and experience. Hence, some important and immediately required decisions from the Government is needed. For this, the Government should establish a “Consultancy Development Centre” (CDC) like in other countries (e.g. India, Srilanka, Malaysia, Indonesia etc.) as a special cell of government, which should be an authorized body to particularly deal with enhancing, strengthening and promoting Consulting Industry at national and international levels. This body should be responsible to formulate & suggest appropriate policies and regulations required for a healthy growth of the industry, and training in management of consulting Industry including preparation of standard documents and procedures for the selection of consultants to be used by all government organizations in order to maintain uniformity.
The task of performance evaluation of Consultants for reward and punishment can also be given to CDC as an independent agency. SCAEF has submitted proposal to the government for the establishment of CDC and is pursing for this.

3. Strengthening Relationship Among Engineering and Professional Organizations
With a view to complement the overall development endeavors of our country and address sectoral and collective issues, the different professional associations and societies have been established. Despite being involved for a collective cause for a common goal, that is overall development of this country, there is no appropriate and positive recognition of this sector from the government as well as general community to the level as it should have been. Whether we concede or not, there remains a very wrong and baised image of our professional as being corrupt and making others corrupt including politics and bureaucracy. Thus, it has become essential to build a positive image of our profession and disseminate how important the industry is that shares more than 15% of our national GDP.
To achieve this noble goal, efforts from individual associations or societies are not adequate. We must act collectively to build our individual cause into a consolidated effort for common interest.
In the above context, SCAEF has foresighted the need of a common effort to retrospect the past events and their results, identify bottlenecks, devise their solutions, make a common strategy and agenda, develop short-term and mid-term action plans and home in for an orchestrated effort to boast our common professional voice by all the related professional organization and societies and disseminating the idea through our own forums as well as through all national and international level forums, seminar, gatherings, discussion or even informal sittings that we have with diverse personalities from decision makers to those representing our society.
This will ultimately make all concerned (Political parties, bureaucrats, donor agencies and the general public etc.) aware on the vital role being played by us in the construction of this country, and rebuild our professional image as one of the most respectful and dedicated professionals, who also hold key of building this nation. 2 workshops were organised by SCAEF in this regard.

4. Asian Development Bank (ADB) Seminar and SCAEF’s Action Plan for the Institutional Development of Nepalese Consulting Industry
A two days training program on the Development of National Consulting Services was held 2-3 August 2006. 44 participants from difference consulting firms and organizations participated in the training program. Er. D.B. Singh, Director of SILT Consultants (P) Ltd. made presentation on Status and Future Needs and experience sharing on ADB projects in Nepal on behalf of SCAEF. SCAEF was further requested by ADB to make this presentation in the office of ADB Nepal Resident Mission. President Mr. K. Kunwar made the presentation. Based on these presentations, SCAEF was further requested by ADB to make the Action Plan for the institutional Development of the Consulting Industry in Nepal. The same was prepared and submitted to ADB. The Action Plan is presented separately in this Publication.
Second quarterly meeting with Asian Development Bank, Nepal Resident Mission was held on 15 December 2006 in ADB NRM office in Kamaladi. Discussion was made on the issues of action plan of strengthening SCAEF, new upcoming projects under ADB and the capacity required in consulting sector to implement the projects in future. Next meeting is scheduled for 15th March 2007.

5. SCAEF Building
Initiative has already been taken to obtain a land for CIDB with the assistance from Department of Housing and Urban Development, Babar Mahal. Proposal on the issue of construction of the SCAEF building/few rooms within the premises of CIDB office building was made by SCAEF, which is under consideration. This, however, needs further effort from SCAEF.

6. Establishment of Capital Fund for SCAEF Building
The executive committee of SCAEF has decided to establish a Capital Fund for the construction of its building through the contribution from member firms and through various fund raising activities. In this context, the member firms Silt Consultants (P) Ltd. and Fullbright Consultancy (P) Ltd. have committed to donate Rs. 200,000/- and Rs. 125,000/- respectively in the proposed fund. The amount thus raised shall be kept in separate account and expenditure for which shall be made only upon approval from AGBM or Special General Body Meeting.
The EC of SCAEF extended its heartfelt thanks to the initial two contributors and expected generous contributions from the rest of the member firms. The fund raising movement is expected to gain momentum in 2007.

7. TCDPAP Annual Conference
The Annual Conference on the Theme “Role of Engineering in Poverty Reduction” of TCDPAP held during 5 – 7 March 2006 in Dhaka, Bangladesh was attended by K. Kunwar, President with spouse, K. Amatya Vice-President with spouse, H. R. Shrestha, General Secretary, Badan L. Nyachhyon, Past president with spouse and R. B. Shrestha, Past President with spouse. A country paper was presented by Mr. Kunwar in the conference.
Nepal showed its interest to host the next year’s TCDPAP conference in Nepal, but EC of TCDPAP offered Pakistan, as it is the present Vice President of TCDPAP. Pakistan agreed and informed that it will host next year’s TCDPAP annual conference in Lahore city during 20 – 22 March, 2007. The Theme of the conference is “Engineering and Disaster Management”.
With the joining by Singapore, TCDPAP now has the strength of 14 member countries. Besides, Azerbaijan and Thailand are in the process of having affiliation with the association.

8. Membership
SCAEF has granted its membership to the following firms in 2006 :

• Premium Consult (P) Ltd., 87

• ITECO-Cemat Geotech Services P. Ltd, Kathmandu with Membership No. 88

• Rural Access Engineering Consultant P. Ltd, Lamjung with Membership No. 89

• R. S. Engineering Service, Kathmandu with Membership No. 90

• Hydro Trans (P) Ltd., Kathmandu with Membership No. 91

• East west Engineering Service, Kathmandu with Affiliated Membership No. 2

9. Earthquake Awareness and Disaster Management
SCAEF has created a separate “Earthquake Cell” and has initiated to generate the awareness in community, especially in schools, to minimize the human hazard during earthquake. It was decided to launch the first awareness program in three schools in Maitidevi area of Kathmandu. Ar. Bibhuti Man Singh has been assigned to follow-up the program. A Four days training was organized during 15 to 18 Chaitra 2062.
Further, SCAEF has supported a 10 days (40 hrs) Training Program on “Capacity Building of Young Engineers on Earthquake Hazard Reduction” organised by Construction Industry Training Centre, Rotary Club of Mt. Everest, Earthquake Safety Initiative, and Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City during January 24 to February 5, 2007.

10. Workshop on Capacity Building of Consulting Industry in Nepal
One-day workshop on Capacity Building of Consulting Industry in Nepal was organized on June 19, 2006 (Asadh 5, 2063) under the funding of CIDIC. The Participants were both member and non-member firms.
This workshop was first of its kind organized in order to post-mortem past weakness, present status, identify issues/problems related to the overall functioning of the consulting industry and finally come out with the solution on what further coarse of actions are needed to be taken by SCAEF, the member firms as well as from the government in order to develope the capacity of the consulting industry in Nepal.
The Workshop had the following Sessions:
Session 1 : Presentation: Present Status and Future Prospect for Nepalese Consulting Industry
1(a.) Present Status of Consulting Industry in Nepal

• General

• Background/ history leading to establishment of SCAEF
    » Present status of consulting firms (member and none member)

• Goal and Objectives

• Code of Ethics

• Eligibility requirement for SCAEF membership

• SCAEF representation:
     » Affiliation with international professional organizations
     » Affiliation/ representation in national organization in different capacities

• Professional Activities:
     » Training, workshop, seminar and talk programme etc. - hosting and participating
  Publication/documentation - Annual report, news letter, technical journals etc.
  Website

1(b.) Global/ Regional: Present and Future Scenario for Consulting Industry
1(c.) Future Direction/ Development Prospect for Nepalese Consulting Industry
1(d.) SCAEF’s Development Vision for Nepal

Session 2: Brainstorming: Issue, Cause and Effect

• Problems/ issues identification – overall

• Issues segregations/ divisions into (e.g. goals, legal matters, membership etc related to institutional, general/ admin/logistics/managerial, accounting/ finance, technical/ professional/ skill related to capacity enhancement etc. )

• Cause identification of each issue – root and associated

• Their consequences/ effects – adverse and beneficial – merit and demerit

• Drawing points for session 3
   

Session 3: Brainstorming: Future Direction, Practical Solutions and Action Plan

• Drawing realistic future direction – Strategic Business Plan

• Possible solutions of problem/issues and resources requirement with few alternatives – practical, doable/achievable which is of immediate benefit

• Plan and program identification

• Action Plan – immediate, medium and long-terms in different aspects as classified:
     » Membership and institutional development and strengthening of SCAEF
     » Capacity building – Consulting firms and professionals etc.
   

Session 4: Conclusion and Reporting
A GUIDING DOCUMENT for Nepalese Consulting Industry was be prepared consisting of the following in broader terms, but not limited to;

• Policy (including development vision for Nepal)

• Legal Support

• Program Development including memberships drive, technical/ capacity building and creating business opportunities through training, workshops, seminars, talk programs (in-country and outside country) etc.

• Professionalism Development – code of practice, ethic and conduct etc.

• Institutional Development including admin, managerial and communication etc.

• Human Resources Need, Development and Absorption (in-country and outside country) etc.

11. Collaboration with Korean Engineering and Consulting Association (Kenca)
Four members delegation of Korea Engineering and Consulting Association (KENCA) visited Nepal during 23 to 25 March 2006. SCAEF coordinated their program in Kathmandu. Meeting was organized with Mr. Janak Raj Joshi, Secretary of Ministry of Physical Planning and Works in Singha Durbar on 23 March 2006. Purpose of the visit was to explore the possibility of cooperation mainly on consulting and business opportunities in Nepal. New concept of cooperation from private organization was also discussed in the meeting. SCAEF organized a whole day program in Dhulikhel with the delegation. All member firms were invited in the program. It was agreed to sign the MoU with KENCA in the meeting. Paper on Development and Investment Environment in Nepal is prepared and delivered to the delegation.
Three-person delegation comprising President K. Kunwar, Vice-President Keshab Man Amatya and Joint-Secretary of MPPW Ishori Paudel visited South Korea on invitation of Korea Engineering and Consulting Association (KENCA) to celebrate Third KENCA Day. Visit was made during 15 to 19 October 2006. Keshav Kunwar presented the paper on Nepal’s situation of construction industry including on business and investment opportunities in Nepal. One to one interaction was made with Korean consultants.
Following to this visit, two-person delegation comprising General Secretary Hare Ram Shrestha and Treasurer Lal K.C. visited South Korea on invitation from Korea Engineering and Consulting Association (KENCA) to participate on 1st Engineers Exchange Program. Visit was made during 13 to 20 November 2006. KENCA organized visits on various development projects and Korean engineering consulting companies.

12. Low Billing Rate
Many EC members raised the issue of very low bidding rates in various proposals sought by government or other organization. Few of them were Construction of Dharmashala in Pashupati Area by Indian Embassy, Construction Supervision in Decentralized Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Project (DRILP) etc. This issue was seriously discussed and it has been decided to establish SCAEF’s Standard Billing Rates to be adopted by all member firms.

13. International Conference
SCAEF sponsored the International Conference as co-organizer on “Water, Waste Water and Environment: Challenges to Developing Countries” held on 13 to 15 September 2006 in Kathmandu organized jointly by Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Ministry of Environment and Science, Nepal Engineers Association and Society of Public Health Engineers Nepal. SCAEF coordinated to contribute the conference bag and cash of Rs 50,000.00 from consulting firms.

14. Abolition of Bid Bond
Despite not provisioned in the Financial and Administration Rules (2058), many government and other organizations are asking for bid bond while submitting the technical and financial proposals for the consulting jobs. SCAEF has been regularly protesting such provision of bid bond. The recent protest was made to NEA.

15. Contribution to People’s Movement
SCAEF has contributed Rs 55,555.00 to the Janaandolan Primary Health Treatment Fund (JPHTF) and requested all member firms to contribute minimum of Rs 1000 and more if they wish.

16. MOU with FCAN
Draft MOU between SCAEF and FCAN was prepared and discussed. It was agreed that further discussion would be made in forthcoming meeting within SCAEF EC members and also with FCAN. MoU will be redrafted avoiding the area of conflict of interest.

 

17. SCAEF’s Sub-committee
Following are the SCAEF sub-committees and the convener nominated:

Following institutions will be represented on behalf of SCAEF by the following persons:

• Construction Industry Training Center: Er. Keshav Kunwar

• Construction Industry Development Board: Er. Keshav Kunwar

• CIDIC Er. Keshab M. Amatya

• Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation: Er. Keshab M. Amatya

• Earthquake Forum (NFES) Ar. Bibhuti Man Singh
   

The Executive Committee further confirmed that SCAEF is a non-profit making organisation established mainly to protect the interest of its member firms and assist the government in the overall development of the country. Hence, it is decided to request to Tax Office, Babar Mahal to provide SCAEF a Tax Free Certificate, which has been already obtained.

18. SCAEF New Secretariat
The SCAEF Secretariat has been shifted from Tripureswor to Thapathali from July 24, 2006. The new address is